Independant Foodie reviews from Melbourne

Hello all… As much as I have wanted to get this lovely little blog started for years now, my procrastination has gotten the better of me. But now, dear reader, I feel the urge to finally share by joys, and pain, or eating and being food obsessed (as well as a cook book whore) in the lovely foodie city of Melbourne…

I’ll review cookbooks, share travels, shopping and most of all food with you all…

Firstly — one of my favourite new cookbooks – the Bourke Street Bakery…

It seems somewhat ironic to begin a Melbourne food blog with a Sydney shop’s book… suffice to say I bought this book never having visited the apparently “iconic” corner bakery that this book heeds its name from. I must say, however, that now I have owned and indeed used this book, I will definitely be visiting on my next excursion to the city to the north of the foodie capital of Melbourne.

Paul Allam and David McGuinness have collated a visually splendid book, which takes the reader through a n amazing journey of understanding the birth of a loaf to the eventual demise of being eaten…

Being a big fan of real breads like the Irrewarra sourdough’s from western Victoria, I was suitably impressed with the recipes in this marvellous book.

Our test kitchen (which everyone should be aware is a very average home kitchen with a cheap cruddy stove and “nowhere near big enough bench space” in the northern suburbs of Melbourne) have tried two of the many recipes – the “Lemon Curd Tarts” and the “Olive oil dough dinner rolls”.

However time consuming to bake one’s own bread; it is ultimately fulfilling and the recipe was so easy to follow and the bread, flexible and phenomenal! The bread was soft, fluffy and wonderful…. amazing with just some good butter spread over our broken bread…

One of my favourite sweets has always been Lemon curd tart, and the opportunity to try a homemade curd excited me. Although we did cheat a little (well a lot!) by buying pre made pastry shells, the curd was amazing, easy to make and amazing in texture and taste, and the pictures say it all!